1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to music playback apparatuses and music playback systems for performing music playback by using musical-piece data stored in recording media such as hard disk apparatuses and various types of semiconductor memories.
2. Description of the Related Art
Music playback apparatuses for performing music playback by using musical-piece data stored in recording media, such as hard disk apparatuses and various types of semiconductor memories, have become more widespread in recent years. Such music playback apparatuses include apparatuses only for playing back music, and those using a personal computer or an on-vehicle computer (such as a navigation apparatus) which has a hard disk apparatus to execute a predetermined program.
The prices of recording media, such as hard disk apparatuses, have been decreasing and various types of apparatuses, such as personal computers, have included large-capacity (several tens of gigabytes to several hundreds of gigabytes, for example) hard disk apparatuses. When musical-piece data is stored in a 100-GB hard disk apparatus, for example, the apparatus can store the data of 200 musical pieces, assuming that the data is not as compressed as that recorded in a CD and the amount of data for one musical piece is 50 MB. The apparatus can store the data of 2,000 musical pieces assuming that the data is compressed according to a standard, such as MP3 (MPEG1 audio layer 3) and the amount of data for one musical piece is 5 MB. The user can use a personal computer installed at the house or an on-vehicle computer to reproduce musical-piece data stored in a hard disk apparatus to enjoy the music.
When the data of a great number of musical pieces is stored in each of a plurality of music playback apparatuses, if a musical piece which has been played back by one music playback apparatus (such as a music playback apparatus in one's house) is not played back repeatedly by another music playback apparatus (such as a music playback apparatus installed in one's vehicle), it is necessary to perform a musical-piece selection operation before playing back music with each music playback apparatus. The operation becomes complicated and inconvenient.